Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Nilay Patel of the Verge Twitter temper tantrum after criticism of his watch review
- Thread starter macgeek01
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Oh the horror! I don't think that lard butt can run very far, if he can run at all, nor do I think a tech blogger has reason to fly often. It's probably all made up.
Last edited:
I know this behavior probably goes unnoticed in the tech industry. Unless someone else knows otherwise. Or has other stories that are similar in their own industries. They probably all just laugh and then go have drinks after the whole thing.
My only complaint about his review was that he kept stating that the UI was very confusing. After a few minutes with the watch, I knew where the glances, notifications and other elements were on the watch. It's not like after each swipe, the UI randomly rearranges. lol.
Most of the writers @ The Verge used to use iPhones, and most of them use a MBA, due to their reader's demographics, and vocal posters in the comments section, they all seem to carry 2 phones now, one iPhone and one Android, and their articles have softened considerably towards Android phones/devices, since they can't afford to piss off 80% of their readers.
Yes, after 2 days, I wonder what he was thinking, as well. I'm sure I haven't figured out everything yet, and there are some things I'd change (e.g. allow quick deletes of e-mail from the notifications window, rather than having to open Mail), but for the most part I'm figuring it out as I go along.
I think tech writers have this need to try out every single feature to see how it works. The rest of us just figure out what we're going to use it for and go from there.
Nilay can be sarcastic and critical.. he can't seem to take the tiniest bit of criticism.
I'm pretty sure if a white guy called someone an "old Indian man" he'd get fired instantly
MG Siegler tweeted that he thought the Watch would be one product that regular folks would find easier to use than geeks. John Gruber replied "bingo". That's how I see this playing out.
I wouldn't say 100%. They still have Dieter Bohn and Chris Ziegler, who are first-rate writers. I would have much preferred Dieter to handle the aWatch review and Nilay, who's done great MacBook reviews in the past, to handle the MacBook Zero.
The Verge also has some great political coverage on the security state, net neutrality, etc. That said, most of The Verge has devolved into BuzzFeed style, spaghetti-on-the-wall content spamming around any keywords with sizable search volume or social shares.
Easy on a short message, but on a long message, that's a lot of scrolling. I'd like the Force Touch option you get in Mail.
Hasn't he ever heard of checking his bag and having the ticket agent or sky cap print one for you? You can just hand that to the gate agent even with hands full.
He doesn't travel enough obviously.
he makes everyone else on the panel uncomfortable because his the boss & they don't want to go against him
His hate for the apple watch is strong
His hate for the apple watch is strong
After using the watch for about a week, I don't think the review was that far off in terms of its content. That's not to excuse his behavior on Twitter (and that scene in the bar was silly) but I think a lot of people went overboard condemning the review.
TheVerge's "definitive" review was a very clever (and mostly successful) attempt to put an early negative spin on the Apple Watch. As anyone who has read a videogame review knows, a score of 7 out of 10 is low. Review scales have been compressed such that they effectively score from 6 - 10, with ratings rarely showing up in the bottom end of the scale. Given TheVerge's comparatively high scores for competing smartwatches (eg. Moto 360 was scored 8.1), it's hard not to believe that Apple Watch's rating was intentionally low in an attempt to negatively sway early media reporting.
Of course, a reviewer's score is rather subjective, so let's have a look at an example of what was presented as a fact in the review...
In TheVerge's review, Patel states:
However, in the lab tests reported by DisplayMate this week in their Apple Watch Display Technology Shoot-Out, they state:
When I look at my own Apple Watch, it almost appears that the screen is on the very surface of the glass - - I find it hard to believe that any straight forward reviewer could claim there is a "noticeable air gap".
The clever aspect of the review, that I referred to above, is that they mixed in this type of misinformation with positive remarks to create a subtle feeling of uncertainty in readers' minds, and perhaps more significantly in the widespread early media reports which were perhaps most people's first impression of the Apple Watch. By staking their claim as the "definitive" review, they attempted to create a position of disproportionate leverage.
With stunts like this one The Verge will slip off Apple's Christmas card list (media event invitations, early review access, etc) real fast.
I noticed the band and thought it was... odd, but it's his choice. Figured being well over 30 I just was out of the loop on such things...
What is disturbing is that he exhibits an all too common trend in American society where if a criticism is leveled, it's okay to be non-white and turn around and make comments that are essentially bigoted like "old white man" etc. as some form of standing justification for deflecting criticism. It's nothing short of hate speech that should not be tolerated if we want a truly equal society in the U.S.
Sadly, I rather enjoyed his review and his take on things, but lost me as a follower with that racist inflection.
What is disturbing is that he exhibits an all too common trend in American society where if a criticism is leveled, it's okay to be non-white and turn around and make comments that are essentially bigoted like "old white man" etc. as some form of standing justification for deflecting criticism. It's nothing short of hate speech that should not be tolerated if we want a truly equal society in the U.S.
Sadly, I rather enjoyed his review and his take on things, but lost me as a follower with that racist inflection.
